I love this! I'd like to see more of this happening on college campuses across the country--not only black men honoring black women, either. I wish we had been so enlightened when I was there. But it just goes to show that change is incremental and it may take years before you see the change you are working for today. xo

Since my last post, I've been thinking about the challenges of talking about race in our country. As someone who believes that all human beings are suffering in one way or another, how to honor the specific wound caused by racism?

I don't know how else to speak to it other than to say that I love people. The ones hurting today, the ones hurting tomorrow. My hope is that each person can find the means to release their anguish and find hope in the moment, and the will to believe that healing is within their grasp.

Samantha Power, the protector of human rights who stepped down from the Obama campaign after making unfortunate remarks about HIllary Clinton, spoke to the cruelty of this time, pointing to an era in which a child begs a man wielding a machete not to kill him by saying, "I swear, I will never be Tutsi again."

At times it seems healing is impossible. That to try to heal is to embark upon a journey of futility. But that is the time to remember all of those who suffered before and were not turned back by feelings of doubt and uncertainty. We can remember those who met the blade and even then believed that another could have a change of heart.

This belief is what is stolen from us in the midst of the carnage and destruction that appears ever present. But it is exactly what we have to hold on to when the odds appear to be overwhelming, and the demons of anger and disregard for humanity seem to have an almost supernatural power.

If we can continue to touch the place in ourselves that is always there, buried beneath the rubble of hurts, ideas, and misconceptions, our species will thrive. If not, we will continue on, causing unnecessary suffering wherever we go.

Today is a good day to remember. A good day to move from the spring of hope rather than the confusion of fear.

I read this before turning on the news, in order to experience it for myself. It mirrors everything I have been making speeches on for the last fifteen years: the need to end divisiveness, to move toward openness, to cultivate the resource of empathy. To truly change rather than follow the same tired back and forth of battling oppressions.

I think I won't turn on the news today. I will just sit with Barack's hopes and dreams, and refuse to listen to a political machine laying in wait to slice them to pieces.

Hope you are all thriving.

Peace and love forever,

Rebecca

PS The gray words are always links--so the speech is accessible from the top of the page.

It is so important for us to be ourselves, to shine. Especially in the difficult moments, when we are called upon to navigate complex socio-cultural realities and feel weak, this is when we must remember our strength.

Remembering who we are, letting ourselves be big, moving forward with surety: this is the way human beings express our essential beauty. With intention and self-respect we create our own inimitable style. In the face of tremendous obstacles, we move with our own, unshakable grace.

I found out today while doing an NPR interview and listening to Mary Frances Berry on air that Ferrarro said the same thing about Jesse Jackson when he ran for President.

It would behoove us to remember Rove-ian tactics and not have our heads in the sand re: the dems. Make no mistake: Hillary wants to be president and she will play the political game like the master players she and her team are. The issue of race is one play in a thick play book.

The question is whether Obama can recognize the level of the game afoot and win at it, while staying true to his aspiration for new politics (and not becoming completely demoralized). The people he's running against are doing old politics, and the world is watching to see how he manages it. He's going to have to beat politicos in his own backyard, or else how will he outplay them on a global stage?

1. Great talk tonight at MTSU. Warm campus, smart students, beautiful faculty. Had a great time, especially seeing my old friends Denise and Kimberly, who drove from Pensacola to see me. How lucky am I? We talked about Third Wave Feminism(s), creativity, spirituality, Empire, and new masculinity, among other topics.

2. So amazing to see Obama winning in Mississippi. He campaigned in Jackson, MS, where my parents married against anti-miscegenation laws. My father stayed up at night on our porch with a shotgun because the Klan threatened our little mixed race, segregation-challenging family.

It is incredible to see, in one generation, a mixed race person running for President and taking the state in the primary. I can't be prouder of all my parents did to help birth this moment. I'm also proud of the evolution of a mixed race view of the world that began way back with Frederick Douglass, and runs through Bob Marley--both of whom were mixed race.

3. I can't believe Geraldine Ferraro had the temerity, or unmitigated gaul, to suggest Barack is where he is because of his race. Didn't I already address this in my response to Gloria Steinem's Op-Ed? Didn't I address this in my critique of white, status quo Second Wave Feminist leadership? Sigh.

4. Come check out my new blog on theroot.com. It's called SEEDS, and I'll be posting on parenting twice a week.

Very important article about the role of class in this election. Important to consider, though I think there are many reasons women of all backgrounds might vote for Obama.

For starters, black women of every class may feel there is a better chance Obama will challenge the prison industrial complex currently criminalizing and incarcerating so many African-American men. Rich white women may be voting Obama because they don't want to see their sons shipped off to war, a modality Hillary has supported and Obama has not.

Really, there are so many other factors here than whether or not Maria Shriver has nice hair or the Obamas live in a nice house.

This article was sent by "Cardozo" who commented on the Feminist Infighting post about the rampant misogyny Hillary's been hit with during the campaign, and how Obama seems a distraction from real issues facing women.

My response:

I agree with much of what you've said here Cardozo--I was stunned last month in Pensacola when I shared the elevator with a man whose t-shirt had a picture of Hillary on a bucket of chicken. The caption? "Two small breasts, two left wings, and a pair of fat thighs." I was so shocked by the vulgarity, I couldn't respond in the moment.

The issue raised in my post is that Feminism has failed to countermand this misogyny by building a devoted, diverse, mainstream base through its us vs. them, often short-sighted and divisive dynamic.

The issue of whether Obama can address the specific concerns of women, or even make good on half of his promises, is an important one. And yet, we cannot deny the potency of his open approach to the issues, the incredible team of advisors he has put together, and his ability to relate to many around the world for whom whiteness in either gender still stands for colonialism and exploitation.

One thing is for sure, and I know this from personally traveling from Kenya to Thailand and all points including Iceland in between, the US is in desperate need of a makeover, substantively and superficially.

In a truly global world, the people of every country have a stake in this election, and from what I hear, Obama's their candidate.